XML Tutorial

Trainer: Devan Shepherd, XMaLpha Technologies

XML is the lingua franca of the Internet and has very quickly taken over as an enabler for Legislative document drafting, tracking, composition, and many other sophisticated applications. This introductory session is designed to explore the XML approach in the context of Legislative data. Whether you are championing a new era of electronic publishing and content management, designing a replacement to a sophisticated existing drafting solution, or delving into interoperable data exchange to enhance delivery of Legislative documents to the Web, XML offers an opportunity to create an industrial-strength, self-describing, data-driven solution that delivers multi-channel publication options. The focus of the session will be fairly high level, with an emphasis on:

What the heck is XML and why should we care?
What is meant by well-formed, valid, syntactically perfect and other descriptors of XML?
Where does XML fit in an integrated legislative application?
What is XML document analysis?
Encoding (and enforcing) legislative business rules in XML
Styling options for XML (making the documents look as they should as output from a system)
Integration and related issues
Questions and answers

Devan Shepherd is the author of Teach Yourself XML in 21 Days, 2/e, ISBN: 0-672-32093-2. He has nearly 30 years of progressive experience in the IT industry as a developer, consultant, public speaker, and instructor. He runs, as CEO and Chief Technical Officer, XMaLpha Technologies (http://xmalpha.com/), a successful consulting and technology training company that has a dedicated Legislative Solutions(tm) Practice Group. XMaLpha has partnered on automation projects with the legislatures of Minnesota, Idaho, Kansas, Oregon, and Iowa. In addition, XMaLpha has provided training and consulting services in various other State Agencies throughout the US. Devan is a regular speaker, instructor, and tutorial leader and has spoken at many leading technology events. He was honored in 2000 to accept the Smithsonian Institute Award for Innovation in Computing, and have his team's work added to the permanent archives of the Institute.

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